The Mean Wendy Band is a folk-rock-do-wap-a-cappella-ragtime-sing-a-long comedy group fronted by song-writer and singer, Wendy Lenhart. She is accompanied, as always, by her trusty Man Band of Ryan T. Barlow, Brian Kelly, Dan Kristie and Zachary Wiseley. Together they write & perform original music.

A Delaware Love Story (from Wendy)

We have had pretty great timing as far as when we got the band together. We all knew each other in one way or another by 2014 through a network of improvisers, sketch comedians and in Dan and Ryan's case- as college roommates. We took the band from the concept of a solo lady standup comedian/storyteller with a musical instrument to a silly vocalist backed by a talented group of musicians fondly known as the Man Band. (I love and admire them in case you can't tell. I even make them dinner sometimes.) Actually, if you've seen "Mean Wendy Band Changes the World" you know that it was just Ryan as the original man (singular) band.

Perfect timing returned in the summer of 2015 when my dear friend, long-time former coworker, and all-around Delaware advocate Jana Savini told me about Gable Music Ventures and an opportunity they were offering for artists to play Wilmo Wednesdays. I contacted Jeremy and explained that we were a comedy band that wanted to expand into playing music venues. He invited us to play and after that, things really started to evolve quickly for us. Jeremy and Gayle booked us just a few months later to perform with Delaware comedy staples Hot Breakfast and Todd Chappelle for "An Evening of Musical Comedy" at the Smyrna Opera House. (Our first contracted gig!) After talking to the big kids on that bill (shout-out to Jill, Matt, and Todd!) about recording their music we were connected with our buddy Ray Gagliardino at Studio 825 where we recorded our first EP. And the rest is pretty recent, but successful history. We even did our digital release for our debut album at a subsequent Wilmo Wednesday back in November of 2016.

The opportunities that Mean Wendy Band has had playing in Delaware introduced us to some truly generous people who have really helped us on our journey. More recently, in addition to our work with Gable Music Ventures we had an opportunity to open for City Theater Company's resident improv troupe, Fearless for a very appreciative and fun crowd. Don't get me wrong, the fine city of Philadelphia is my soulmate, but Delaware makes a mighty fine special friend too.

Playing the Ladybug Festival last night made it crystal clear that Delaware is pretty great, but even more so the people in it. Now we just need to track down Joe Biden to teach him the Mean Wendy Dance and our lives will be complete.